Videos

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

The 24 fighters on the UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot 2 card weighed-in earlier today in Las Vegas — with varying degrees of success. First, the bad news: Undefeated lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov might have just cursed himself to another year of FX curtain-jerking by coming in a whopping 3.5 pounds over the 155-pound limit. Instead of trying to cut 2.5 pounds to make 156, Nurmagomedov forfeited 20% of his purse, 10% of which will go to his opponent Abel Trujillo, with the other 10% going to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. As if that didn’t make Nurma look like enough of a jackass, he followed up the weigh-in by donning his traditional Ben Askren wig then shoving Trujillo for no particular reason. (Skip to the 9:53 mark of the above video, and you will see a side of Burt Watson you’ve never seen before.)

In other news, both heavyweight bouts on the main card feature 20+ pound weight differentials, with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva coming in 23 pounds heavier than champion Cain Velasquez, and Mark Hunt out-hefting Junior Dos Santos by 25. Check out the full UFC 160 weigh-in results after the jump, and be sure to come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow night for our liveblogs, starting with the FX prelims at 8 p.m. ET.

(Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva II)

This Saturday night, you can join us for all the action during our UFC 160 liveblog, but today you can prep for the pay-per-view card with these “Countdown to UFC 160” documentary hype videos, broken up into three segments for the ADD-afflicted among you.

At the top, we’ve got the low-down on the night’s main event rematch — Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva for the UFC heavyweight title. After the jump, check out the story of MMA’s own Cinderella Man, Mark Hunt, as he heads into his number one contender’s bout with former champion Junior Dos Santos. Plus, Glover “Lil’ Iceman” Teixeira continues his path up the light-heavyweight ladder against streaking Kiwi James Te Huna.

(Props: YouTube.com/CagePotato. Please subscribe!)

Jade Bryce was our favorite MMA ring girl even before she agreed to do this video with us. Now, she’s officially reached CagePotato Hall of Fame status.

Watch as the Bellator beauty does her most faithful renditions of Rashad Evans‘s infamous knockout face, “Just Bleed” guy, drunk dancing mom at UFC 150, Ryan Jimmo‘s celebratory robot, “Rising Douchebag,” and the nose-smushing face-off between Don Frye and James Thompson at PRIDE 34. We had a blast putting this together, and we hope you enjoy it too.

Follow Jade on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and keep an eye out for her new website, coming soon. And if you want to see a sequel to “MMA Impressions With Jade Bryce,” please throw some impression-suggestions into the comments section…

No, really. She said that.

I won’t go into more than has been written on this site on the subject of Fallon Fox, the first openly transgender MMA fighter, who was born a man and then underwent (and continues to undergo) hormone treatments and surgery to change her sex, but you definitely need to watch the video above.

AXS TV Fights recently interviewed Fox. During that conversation, Fox was asked if she felt she had an advantage over her opponents in Women’s MMA who were, you know, born women. Fallon went further than saying that she and her opponents were equally matched — she assured that she was, in fact, at a disadvantage.

If I know anything about the CagePotato audience, you probably stopped reading right there, so I will see you and your outrage in the comments section.

(Props: MiddleEasy via MMeh)

Never in our life did we think we would witness a combat sports performance more embarrassing than Nick “Turbo Tax” Capes’ dive against former NFL defensive end Ray Edwards last February. We were wrong. We were so goddamn wrong.

Perhaps all the years spent covering the travesty that is Bob Sapp have desensitized us to the art of the flop. Perhaps we’re just getting too old for this shit. But in all of Sapp’s positively miserable performances, we never once saw him, as our buddies over at MiddleEasy so eloquently put it, “tap to a sprawl.” Sure, he’s tapped to strikes, a takedown, and been knocked out by a phantom punch or two in his time, but this…this is somehow worse.

(Props: YouTube.com/fueltv. Skip to 13:38 to see Hunt create the best MMA photo moment of 2013.)

Picture it: Saitama, March 2013. Thirty-eight-year-old slugger Mark Hunt has improbably battled his way to a three-fight win streak in the UFC, and is booked to face Stefan Struve, who stands 14 inches taller than him, and is on an impressive four-fight victory run of his own.

The MMA Gods were angry that night, my friend. By the time that Hunt and Struve stepped into the cage, fans at the Saitama Super Arena had suffered through 24 consecutive rounds without a finish — eight straight decision fights, half of which were so close that the judges didn’t all agree on who had won. It would take a miracle to save this card. Or maybe, just a beefy Samoan who knew how to exploit Struve’s maddening inability to use his range.

(Props: LukeCummo13. You’ve got some competition, Quinn.)

By Matt Saccaro

“Whatever happened to that guy?” is a common question MMA fans ask about retired or forgotten fighters. Usually, the answer is boring and mundane — except when Luke Cummo is involved.

Cummo’s exploits outside the cage have gotten consistently more entertaining as time has gone on. One day he’s getting busted for a DWI, the next day he’s snorting urine. Now, he’s reforming (and hating) the sport of mixed martial arts.

“It’s called MMA but it’s very dangerous. Trust me. I’ve been there. It’s damaging — to children…As a parent, I would never recommend fighting for somebody’s baby,” Cummo said in a recent video on his YouTube channel that you can watch above. “It’s a mindless, stupid industry profiting from the spilled blood of the innocent, honest to god.”

Cummo took issue with MMA gloves and how they don’t protect people from knees and elbows, as well as the inherent violence in MMA.

“You have to put on gloves…but then you’re gonna kick and you’re gonna knee and you’re gonna elbow the other guy — somebody’s baby. There’s no padding on those things…and that’s another living being over there, a precious life. I feel for you as a soldier. I used to be one. You’re not a stupid beast. Nobody is. You’re not a programmable killing machine. You are, still, now and for all time, your parent’s baby to be cherished and nourished, not to kill or be killed. That’s old school, we’re cutting edge over here.”

You know, in a world where even female fighters are valued for their sex appeal as much as their actual abilities, you’d think that an undefeated sexpot like Rin Nakai would be getting a lot more press. The similarities between Nakai and current UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey are astounding, yet their career trajectories as of late could not be more different. Undefeated bantamweight submission specialists? Check. Willing to fall back on their sex appeal to promote a fight? Check and…uh…check, I guess. Showed up to their last weigh-in wearing bunny-themed lingerie, complete with ears and a thong? Point Nakai.

Sure, Rin’s look appeals to a *very* specific niche, but the woman’s shameless self-promotional skills and morbid sense of sexuality (the term “fearection” comes to mind) is something that should not only be recognized by us lamestream media types, but held in high regard. Let us not forget that we live in a society that has yet to rid itself of the personification of cancer that is Jose Canseco.

Anyway, join us after the jump to check out a video of Nakai rocking an outfit straight out of Final Fantasy or some shit and strangling Brenda Gonzales at Pancrase 247 over the weekend.

Cheick Kongo owns and operates a high-end clothing boutique in Los Angeles called FragoLA. I’ve got nothing clever to say about that right now because that true statement is pretty weird and awesome sounding on it’s own, isn’t it?

Kongo has always gone for a minimalist type of style (think, his vale tudo shorts, necklace and wire-rimmed glasses weigh-in uniform) so I suppose it makes sense that the former UFC heavyweight has chosen to invest in a store selling the latest seasonal offerings from expensive designers. Ok, it doesn’t really make sense but it is a hell of juxtaposition – A bear-voiced 240 pound professional fighter asking little Angelino women if they are finding everything alright – so, check out the video above, if only for the novelty of it all.

Karyn Bryant models some of FragoLA’s finest while interviewing Kongo in the store. I won’t say the interview is bad, I just couldn’t understand much of what was going on. Neither could Bryant.

Kongo shadily refuses to reveal how he keeps prices so low on his men’s and women’s designer duds and, for some reason, talks a lot about how he is black. I’d personally never before noticed that he was.

Kongo’s accent and weird “humor” make for an awkward sit-down. Any tater that gets through all sixteen minutes gets a special place in my heart and a shout-out in my next event live-blog.

So, in conclusion, Cheick Kongo owns and operates a high-end clothing boutique in Los Angeles called FragoLA. Wow.

- Elias Cepeda

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

During Thursday’s UFC on FX 8 pre-fight press conference, Vitor Belfort did that thing he loves to do where he held his right fist out to Luke Rockhold‘s chin during their photo-op staredown. Luke was not amused. So, after the two headliners weighed in today at Arena Jaragua in Jaragua do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil, Rockhold just walked straight through Belfort’s fist-pose, making body contact with the Brazilian fighter. Belfort shoved Rockhold, and Bootleg Dana had to separate them.

Video of that incident is above, and the full “Belfort vs. Rockhold” weigh-in results are after the jump. Be sure to come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow night at 9 p.m. ET for our liveblog of the main card!